NEW DELHI, Oct 28 —To combat severe winter pollution, Delhi on Tuesday witnessed its first cloud-seeding attempt, with an aircraft from Kanpur releasing flares over parts of the city in hopes of triggering artificial rain.
The operation was carried out over Burari and Karol Bagh, officials confirmed. “A Cessna aircraft took off from Kanpur and released eight fire flares during a half-hour trial,” Delhi minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa said in a statement. He added that, based on IIT Kanpur’s estimates, rainfall could occur within 15 minutes to four hours after seeding if the atmospheric conditions remain favourable.
A second trial is scheduled for later in the day over outer Delhi, and several more are planned throughout the week. “We have about nine to ten such trials lined up. If they yield positive results, we will draw up a comprehensive long-term plan,” Sirsa said.
The initiative follows a test flight conducted last week, also over Burari, where silver iodide and sodium chloride were dispersed from the aircraft to assess the feasibility of cloud seeding. Officials said that due to low humidity levels — less than 20 percent instead of the 50 percent usually required — no rainfall could be generated during that attempt.
The project stems from an MoU signed on September 25 between the Delhi government and IIT Kanpur to conduct five cloud-seeding operations aimed at improving air quality in northwest Delhi. The DGCA granted permission for the trials to take place anytime between October 1 and November 30.
“This is just the beginning,” Sirsa noted, emphasising that cloud seeding could provide a temporary but much-needed reprieve from toxic smog that engulfs the city every winter. “We’ll study the outcomes closely and act accordingly,” he said.
